Varanasi diaries III – The wedding and an over enthusiastic photographer

Are you going to get down on the road to take the pictures of this procession? – Arnab asked me. Arnab is my brother in law, who was was accompanying me in the Varanasi tour.

Why not ? – I replied. We stopped the rickshaw and I jumped out to rush near the procession.

I remember seeing a baraat with a proper band and baaja, when I was in class IX. My uncle used to stay in Patna and I saw for the first time people carrying lights on their heads, a gigantic sound system with typical Bihari /bhojpuri music playing with Jhankar Beats ( I am a closet fan of Bihari and Bhojpuri music). The groom riding a horse or in a carriage, with his traditional turban with a sehra ( the flower veil ), a little perplexed. The fun is for the relatives and friends who accompany the procession, as they keep dancing to the music. As a wedding photographer, (my learnings were immense) I always wished to cover a marriage like this and preferrably a North Indian one.

At 10 in the night, while on our way to Varanasi Ghats around Godowlia chowk, this procession was going. A little animated conversation with Arnab and I captured all of these images. I had little time in my hand, as we were headed to our night rendezvous with Varanasi Ghats.

Once again I realized that there is darkness under the lights. As the sad faces of men and women who carried the lights were only doing this for a living and were untouched by all the frenzies of the friends and relatives around. It was all in a days work for them. Promises are made, dreams are woven, families, culture and rituals embrace each other, while two people go ahead in the journey of their life, while some show the light throughout the journey with an immense darkness underneath.